Particle.news
Download on the App Store

Fireball Over Northwestern Europe Sends Meteorites to Western Germany, Damaging Koblenz Home

ESA is refining size and trajectory estimates from extensive camera footage.

Overview

  • The object blazed for about six seconds around 17:55 UTC on March 8, traveling from the southwest to the northeast and visible across Belgium, France, Germany, Luxembourg and the Netherlands.
  • Fragments reached the ground in Rhineland-Palatinate, with at least one stone punching a football-sized hole in a roof in Koblenz-Güls and no injuries reported.
  • Dedicated AllSky7 stations and numerous public videos recorded the event, and many witnesses reported a loud bang as the meteoroid fragmented.
  • ESA’s Planetary Defence team preliminarily assesses the incoming body at a few metres in diameter and says its dusk approach likely kept it out of survey telescopes’ view.
  • Meteorite pieces were recovered near Koblenz and are slated for laboratory classification, and local authorities emphasized the natural origin with no link to military activity.